Ad Watch: Nelson Hits Scott on Oil Drilling; Scott Pushes Back

Senator Bill Nelson’s new digital ad accuses Governor Rick Scott of election year politics in winning a concession from the Trump administration not to drill for oil off the coast of Florida.

Nelson calls the governor “Oil Slick Rick” and attempts to make the case in the sixty second ad that Scott actually supports off-shore drilling. Nelson uses a 2010 clip from Scott, then a candidate for governor, saying “offshore drilling is an option.” That’s after the Obama administration proposed drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico. Nelson, reacting to the same 2010 Obama proposal, said “I just want to put my marker down that I have no objection to offshore drilling if it is done responsibly…”

Scott’s campaign pushed back hard on the new Nelson ad. “The only way for Bill Nelson to present himself as a lifelong advocate against offshore oil drilling is to distort the facts, and the fact is that Bill Nelson not only didn’t write the bill that created the moratorium, he was the only Gulf Coast senator to not co-sponsor it,” said Lauren Schenone, Scott’s campaign press secretary. “It’s also a fact that when Obama needed the support, it was Bill Nelson who was willing to put partisan politics first and change his position to support oil drilling closer to Florida’s shores.”